And for the last cocktail I’ll be making this year with Drink of the Week, allow me to introduce the Christmas Cosmo.

This drink takes the cranberry sorbet recipe I introduced earlier this week and uses it to turn a regular Cosmopolitan into something festive. With the addition of sorbet, the drink takes on some of the texture of a Strawberry Margarita while still keeping the tartness of a properly made Cosmopolitan. This drink is girlie enough to be pretty while still manly enough to appeal to the male guests at your holiday party.

If you don’t want to make the sorbet, you can always buy some.

Recipe:

Christmas Cosmo
(Makes 1 cocktail)

Ingredients:

2 oz cranberry sorbet
1/2-1 oz vodka (depending on how strong you want it)
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions:

With a shot glass, scoop out 2 ounces worth of cranberry sorbet and place in a cocktail shaker. Add vodka, cointreau, and lime juice. With a knife or muddler, swish the sorbet in the liquids until it loosens. Shut the cocktail shaker and shake thoroughly. (Alternately, you can use a blender for this.) Pour into a glass and garnish with sugared cranberries or a lime wedge.

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

I am taking the rest of the year off to work on other projects. Blogging will resume on Monday, January 3, 2011.

Have a great holiday, folks.

(Image courtesy Save on Crafts)

When wrapping Christmas presents this year, I will be reusing the bag of bows I bought at a thrift store five years ago. I’m curious to see how long it will last before I have to buy some more. But I confess, I have always wanted to be able to make those gorgeous floral bows you see on fancy gifts. Since I have some wire ribbon (my mom always calls it French ribbon) lying around, I decided to give it a try this year.

By learning this skill, you can make a nice topper anytime you want with just ribbon, a pair of scissors, and something to tie the bow off with. The bows can also go on banisters, wreaths, and even the tree itself. And you can reuse your loopy bow year after year simply by saving the ribbon.

Here’s a video going over how to make a loopy bow topper for a Christmas present. It goes through how to do a simple bow to a complicated multi-loop bow.

This lady shows another method for making a loopy bow for a gift that looks like it would work too:

Cranberry sorbet is a great dessert to have on hand during Christmas. It’s festive, tasty, and refreshing. It can be eaten by itself or used as a palate cleanser between courses at Christmas dinner. And imagine, a Christmas dessert that is actually low-fat.

This recipe uses all fresh ingredients, including two bags of cranberries (frozen cranberries would work too). Cranberries are packed with antioxidants and Vitamin C and other good things, but most of us don’t get the benefit of the berries because the cranberry juice and sauces we buy tend to be mostly sugar. But this recipe makes the most out of the cranberry. As such, it is a little on the tart side of sweet, but still delicious. Think of it like eating frozen Craisins.

Ingredients:

2 bags cranberries, roughly 1 1/2 pounds
2 c sugar
4 c water
1/3 c freshly squeeze orange juice
1 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbs Grand Marnier (optional)

You will need an ice cream maker to make this recipe.

Directions:

Boil cranberries, 2 cups of water, and 1/2 cup sugar in a pot for about 15 minutes or until the cranberries burst. Stir the cranberries occasionally to make sure they don’t burn.

Combine the rest of the sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil on the stove, stirring all the time. Simmer until all the sugar is dissolved in the water.

Cover both the cranberries and sugar with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to thoroughly cool down. I left mine in overnight.

When they are cold, puree the cranberries in a blender or food processor. Try to get the cranberries as smooth as possible, but don’t stress. A few chunks here and there is nice in sorbet.

Juice the lemon and orange juices. Combine juice and Grand Marnier with the cranberries, stirring all the while. Slowly add half the sugar water and taste. If it is too tangy, add the rest of the sugar water to the cranberries and taste again. If it is still too tangy after that, add some more orange juice.

Once you have the taste adjusted how you want, run the cranberries mixture through an ice cream maker. Put in containers and freeze until hard, about 2 hours. Enjoy!

Buzzfeed has a round up of 20 Amazing Gingerbread Houses. I had no idea that people could take the simple gingerbread house to such heights!

There’s lots of inspiration here if you’re decorating your own gingerbread house, plus they are so pretty to look at. I think my favorite is the one above. What’s yours?

The Decorated Cookie has a recipe for these melted snowman Christmas cookies. They have a sugar cookie base and a fondant head. Hilarious! (Via Craft)

Here is something awesome: tee-shirts with book covers on them. They are made by Out of Print Clothing, which prints the graphics of book covers on their shirts. From their site:

“Out of Print celebrates the world’s great stories through fashion. Our shirts feature iconic and often out of print book covers. Some are classics, some are just curious enough to make great t-shirts, but all are striking works of art.”

They come in mens, womens, and kids sizes. $28 each.

UPDATE: I bought one of these and they are very poor quality. The material is so thin, it’s see-through. So in retrospect, I do not recommend these shirts after all.

Growing up, my parents always had a nativity set out at Christmas time. As an adult, I would like to continue this tradition, but most nativity sets are so tacky, you know? I don’t want to display porcelain dolls or badly carved figurines in my house. Maybe this is one of the reasons why so few young people put out nativities when they are decorating for the holidays–they often seem like something your Grandmother would display.

However, attractive nativity sets are out there. Here are some that I found:

Designer Valerie Atkisson makes these Nativity sets by laser cutting metal. “The two pieces connect in the middle, creating a cross, with the baby Jesus lying in his manager at the center, adored by Mary and Joseph, shepherds and animals, the three Kings and an angel.” $130-$280, depending on the metal you choose.

This Alessi Nativity set is a “contemporary spin on the Holy Family.” I’ll say! It comes in either red or white and costs $90.

This is probably my favorite, but to tell the truth, I am not sure if this German Nativity Set is still available. However, they have lots of other options on their website if it’s not.

Finally, this candle holder is maybe all the nativity set I need–and it’s easy to store. It costs £26.50 and looks like it can be shipped to the United States.

I am considering getting this shower curtain when I finish remodeling my bathroom. It is a Kraken shower curtain from, where else? The Kraken Online Store. The only thing I don’t like is that it says something in the right-hand corner that I can’t read. Oh, and it’s pricey at $59.99, but it is machine washable… Hmmm… (Via Notcot)

Here’s a way to use up extra scraps when making pie dough: pie fries.

This simple-but-brilliant idea goes like this: roll out the dough and cut the pie scraps into fry-like shapes. Brush with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes until crispy and golden. Serve with jam for dipping.

Last year I tried making my own eggnog and found out that it is delicious. This year, I have learned about Coquito, which is a Puerto Rican version of the drink made with rum and coconut milk. Yum!

The Kitchn has a post on the Coquito, which not only takes the above-mentioned coconut milk, but also uses evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. Apparently Puerto Ricans drink the Coquito in small doses, and I can see why now. But despite the heaviness, this drink still looks mighty tasty.

Here is the recipe from The Kitchn:

Coquito
makes about 6 cups

1 15-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 13.5-oz can light coconut milk
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 c white rum
4 large egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until frothy. Pour into a glass pitcher and refrigerate. Serve chilled with a pinch of cinnamon.

I realize some people are scared of raw eggs, so if you are, there are pasteurized eggs at the grocery store. Or do what I did and get some chickens so you never have to worry about it again.